Gordon Monro's blog

Mothballing this blog

2018-05-01T14:00:00.000+10:00

After more than 10 years I am mothballing this blog, as it has ceased to be useful.Thanks to all the people who have engaged with it from time to time.

I can be reached, and my activities viewed, via my website at http://gommog.com/.

Abstraction 18

2018-04-10T18:05:00.000+10:00

“Abstraction 18” is a massive group exhibition across several galleries, curated by Stephen Wickham and Wilma Tabacco. It is timed to coincide with the recreation of the exhibition “The Field” from 1968 in the National Gallery of Victoria. I have a work in this show in the Stephen McLaughlan Gallery - the image is part of my piece.

Detail of Alogos: Hexagonal

Where: Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Level 8 Room 16 The Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston Street Melbourne (on the corner with Flinders Lane), http://www.stephenmclaughlangallery.com.au/

Opening event: Saturday 28th April, 2 pm - 4 pm.

Exhibition dates: April 25 - May 26, 2018.

Gallery hours: Wednesday to Friday 1 pm - 5 pm and Saturday 11 am - 5 pm.

There are also two other openings that weekend for other parts of the exhibition: at Five Walls (Footscray) on Friday April 27, 6pm - 9pm, and Langford 120 (North Melbourne) on Sunday 29th, 2pm - 4pm. See http://fivewalls.com.au/ and http://www.langford120.com.au/.

The Other Art Fair and Interior Decorating

2018-04-02T09:53:00.000+10:00

I was an exhibitor at The Other Art Fair, Sydney, held on 22-25 March in the exhibition hall of the Advanced Technology Park near Redfern station. The organiser is Saatchi Art, an organisation that now has no connection with Charles Saatchi, though he was involved early on; later he sued them to stop them using his name. The point of difference of The Other Art Fair is that there are no gallerists or dealers in the stands, only artists showing their own works.

There was an application process for the fair; I could not get any sense of how rigorous the selection was. I looked at a few CVs, and from what I could see the artists selected were reasonably established in terms of holding solo exhibitions and being finalists in prizes. The publicity for the fair had a relentlessly young and funky vibe, and many of the artists were youngish, but I certainly wasn't the only one there with grey (or white) hair, so the selection wasn't too dependent on age.

The Fair brought home to me just how much the art world is part of the interior decoration industry, both domestic and corporate. I thought about a spectrum of artists and artistic endeavour. At one end are the artists who are exploring, extending their practice, engaged in what I think of as a conversation with the history of art and with a wide range of influences from within the artworld and outside it. I call this the exploratory end of the spectrum. At the other extreme is the purely commercial end, where the artist develops a formula that isn't going to upset anyone (stylised landscapes, swoopy abstracts, cute figures, soft-focus nudes), sticks to the formula and produces in quantity. Some artists have two practices at different places on the spectrum: for example, a ceramicist might produce a line of simple pieces for sale as well as making more "difficult" experimental works.

The art fair made me realise that the artists I have met have generally been near the exploratory end of the spectrum, which is not surprising considering that I have been studying in a postgraduate University environment. There was a range at the art fair, including quite a lot of very formulaic work as well as some that was more towards the exploratory end.

There were many large works at the fair, which surprised me, as the visitors were largely people looking to buy things for their houses. I was naughtily reminded of the supposed art-school graffito: "If it isn't working, make it BIG! If it still isn't working, make it RED!" But quite a few big paintings sold, so maybe people have big walls.

I wasn't the only person exhibiting computer-generated work: Grant Stewart showed work made by a drawing machine he had constructed that is controlled by a small computer (an Arduino), and he had the machine there and in action as well.

I have never participated in an art fair before, and I didn't know what to expect. For me it wasn't a success: it cost me quite a lot in time, money and effort, and I sold very little. Apparently some gallerists and curators visited the fair, but none made themselves known to me. However, some of the other artists at the fair sold well, and I don't blame Saatchi Art for my lack of success. But I don't expect to do it again.

Wyndham Art Prize

2018-03-21T22:14:00.001+11:00

I have a work in this year's Wyndham Art Prize.

Opening: The opening is on the 29th March from 6.30 to 8.30pm. All welcome!

Where: The Wyndham Art Gallery, 177 Watton Street Werribee. (In the Wyndham Cultural Centre building.)

Exhibition dates and hours: 29th March to 11th June. Gallery hours Mon - Fri 9 - 5, weekends and public holidays 11 - 4.

White Night Ballarat

2018-03-21T21:49:00.000+11:00

On Saturday (18th March) I went to see White Night Ballarat. This is the second time it has come to my home town; the first time was last year. Before then Victorian white nights were only in Melbourne.

This year was a success by all accounts, with an estimate of 60,000 visitors, impressive for a city of only 100,000 people, and more than came last year. Some of the works were imported from the Melbourne White Night a few weeks ago, but by no means all (and I didn't see the Melbourne White night this year, so I'm not making comparisons; I also saw only about half of the Ballarat event). It was a very windy night in Ballarat, and this caused a couple of things to be cancelled, including the chandeliers by Debra Goldsmith, but otherwise things seemed go very smoothly. There was a good atmosphere, with people of all ages simply having a good time. Central Ballarat suits White Night well, with plenty of historic façades for projections and several suitable venues for indoor events, all compactly located in two or three blocks.

What sort of work succeeds at a White Night? The audience consists of all ages, including young children, and there are large crowds moving through the streets and the venues. So, colour and movement is a big plus, "adult" themes are problematic, and a duration of five minutes or less is good. And a surprise twist of some kind is an asset.

I felt that certain things have become close to routine at these events, and I have seen a number of White-Night-like events in several cities in the last few years. Firstly, projections onto historic buildings. The technology has matured: in Ballarat the images were bright and clear, and the precision with which windows, columns and other architectural features were outlined and made use of was remarkable. Unfortunately, I have tended not to pay much attention to the content. The only projection that has really stuck in my mind was from a Melbourne White Night a few years ago, in the State Library: it showed various viruses, including the HIV virus, at enormous scale.

Secondly, illuminated sculptures, which move or are interactive. Not so evident in Ballarat this time, though the work Metamorphosis, by Indirect Object and A Blanck Canvas, provided an example. This is a group of interconnected cocoon-like shapes, which respond with sound and colour when touched (or thumped by small children). A work I found more appealing was Enlightened Disciples by Skunk Control, a large collection of flower-like objects (with several prominent thistles), illuminated with changing colours.

Thirdly, works that move through the streets, including performers on stilts and mobile sculptures. The White Night Messenger was in Ballarat this year, an engaging work, part of whose appeal is that the puppeteers who control the work are out in the open. I am sorry that I missed Utility Kinetic Insect.

And fourthly, music and dance stages, providing a festival within a festival.

There are certainly many events outside these four categories. As some examples, in Ballarat the Art Gallery of Ballarat, the Post Office Gallery (Federation University) and the Lost Ones Gallery showed the various exhibitions they currently have on display. There were events related to the Eureka Stockade rebellion, a defining moment in Ballarat history. And among the many events I missed was the blitz chess tournament (very fast play) at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute. ("Ballaarat" is an older spelling of the city's name.)

I'll close by mentioning two works that have strong Ballarat connections, one out in the streets, one inside (in a small theatre space). The first was Bunjil, consisting of 48 sculptures of a flying eagle. These lit up in quick succession, providing a kind of stop-motion animation. The reference is to the creator spirit Bunjil who is prominent in the Indigenous culture of central and Western Victoria; the Indigenous artist consultants for the work were the prominent Ballarat artists Marlene Gilson and Deanne Gilson. This work was in Sturt Street in the centre of Ballarat and was impressive, simple and effective; good White Night material.

The second work was Random Number Generator by Christine Tammer and Erin McCuskey, two active local creators. This is a three channel video, which I thought was the most interesting thing I saw on the night, but was not good White Night material. It was too long, too complex, and it needed a hint: this is the world as seen through the eyes of a poker machine. Fortunately I knew the hint (from the White Night website), and I found the work engrossing, but most of the audience evidently found the work mystifying and boring.

So Ballarat's White Night was a great success and a good event all round, but not surprisingly there \are definite limits to the sort of work that will go well in a White Night environment,

The Other Art Fair, Sydney

2018-03-07T08:48:00.001+11:00

I have taken a stand in The Other Art Fair, Sydney. This is billed as being a "different" art fair, as there are no dealers; the only people selling work are the artists themselves.

The fair is located at the old railway workshops near Redfern station. The address is Exhibition Hall - Bay 8 - Locomotive Workshops -
2 Locomotive Street, Eveleigh NSW 2015.

The opening event is on Thursday 22nd March, and the art fair continues on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The hours vary from day to day: see http://sydney.theotherartfair.com/visiting/fair-programme.

"Imagine" at the Gippsland Art Gallery

2018-03-03T22:25:00.000+11:00

Recently I went to the Gippsland Art Gallery at Sale, to see the first exhibition in the new Gallery. The exhibition was curated by Simon Gregg, the acting Director, and is quite remarkable. It occupies the whole of the Gallery, which consists of a lofty central gallery (where one enters) surrounded on three sides by lower galleries. About half the works in the exhibition came from the Gallery's own collection.

The title "Imagine" indicates the intent of the exhibition: to show works that engage with the imagination. The works covered a wide range, but they had in common elements of the fantastic, the mysterious, the uncanny. There were bizarre and non-functional machines by Tricky Walsh and Adam Laerkesen, soft sculptures inspired by astronomical objects by Claire Pendrigh, the enigmatic figures "Hattah Man" and "Hattah Woman" in a photograph by Polixeni Papapetrou, an unnatural cloudscape by Lesley Duxbury (it was created by the cooling towers of the Loy Yang power station in the Latrobe Valley), the pulsating video "Singularity" by Solveig Settemsdal and Kathy Hinde, and much more.

Here are two photos (by me). An inexpensive catalogue, with good pictures of all the works, is available at the Gallery.

Juz Kitson, Preserved in the the ball of an eye that once could see [detail]

Daniel Agdag, The Bird House [detail]

I found the exhibition more coherent (despite its wide range) and more engaging than the National Gallery of Victoria's Triennial, which I saw recently. The Gippsland exhibition is on until 18th March. See http://www.gippslandartgallery.com/.

Work in the Art Gallery of Ballarat

2018-02-28T16:37:00.000+11:00

My work Nascent (part of the Nanocosm series) is currently on display in the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

More about the work at http://gommog.com/prints/nanocosm_prints/nascent_sequence.html/

Incoherently Massiver

2018-02-21T22:22:00.000+11:00

(More incoherently massive, incoherently more massive?) A few days ago I returned to the Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria. This time I saw the larger-scale works on the ground floor, "larger-scale" being the distinguishing feature. The largest of all is the enormous reclining Buddha by Xu Zhen that dominates the forecourt, but there were a considerable number of other works that each took up a sizeable room. Perhaps the most impressive for me was the sinister mass of the work by Shilpa Gupta (not given a title), which was a roughly spherical shape some four metres across, the outside covered with microphones, placed in a dark room. There were evidently speakers inside the mass, as there was sound, a mixture of crowds talking, music, and other noises. The work was conceived as a meditation on borders and flows of refugees, referring in particular to the separation of Pakistan from Gupta's native India in 1947.

Detail of Shilpa Gupta's work

Another work that appealed to me was the large grouping of extraordinary masks under the title "Vespers" by Neri Oxman, who directs the Mediated Matter group in the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The works were made using newly developed 3D printing techniques. They were also very effectively lit, each plinth having small lights pointing upwards; there were also narrow-beam spotlights in the ceiling.

From the "Vespers" series by Neri Oxman

Cross-cultural exuberance was provided by the Javanese artist Uji (Hahan) Handoko Eko Saputro, whose work combines traditional Javanese images with pop-culture styles. Another exuberant work was by the American artist Pae White, who strung a room with brightly coloured threads as well as decorating the walls in bold patterns; and a third was the "Flower Obsession" room by well-known Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. On entry to this we were given a paper flower with an adhesive base, and asked to add it somewhere in the room. A contrast was the too-cool-for-school array of chairs by the Japanese designer Aki Sato, from Nendo Design. It is claimed that the chairs were inspired by the visual gestures found in manga comics.

One of the works inn the installation by Uji (Hahan) Handoko Eko Saputro


Part of Pae White's room

Yayoi Kusama's "Flower Obsession" (part)

One of Aki Sato's chairs

Another Japanese work was "Moving Creates Vortices and Vortices Create Movement" by teamLab from Tokyo. This was a swirling vortex-like projection on the floor of a room with mirrored walls; the centre area of the projection was responsive to the movements of people nearby. Then there was the selfie heaven of "Santa Cruz River" by Alexandra Kehayoglu (Argentina); an unfair description, as the work has a serious purpose, being based on a threatened ecosystem.

teamLab's swirling floor

Alexandra Kehayoglu's "Santa Cruz River"

The last of the room-sized installations I'll mention is "Noss Noss", the treatment of the downstairs café in the NGV by Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj. The main element is repeated red octagons containing an Arabic word. On this visit I found out what the word means: it is "stop" in Arabic; the octagons are Arabic stop signs.

The floor of the café (Hassan Hajjaj)

I'll close by mentioning a work that does not take up a whole room by itself, though it does occupy three large panels: "Sump System" by Hong Kong/Australian artist Richard Giblett. This is a detailed drawing of a semi-abstracted industrial landscape, the whole appearing to be reflected in some black liquid like sump oil, the "sump" of the title; it refers to the invisible dark underside of our society of profligate consumption. I assume this work was inspired in part by British artist Richard Wilson's work "20:50", which consisted of an actual lake of sump oil in a room; I saw it in London some years ago and the oil did act as a very effective (and spooky) black mirror.

Detail of Richard Giblett's "Sump System"

My tentative opinion of the Triennial from my last visit has been confirmed: there is a lot of interesting and varied work, but there seemed to be no particular reason for bringing together these works at this time, except maybe Instagrammability.

To Edition or Not to Edition?

2018-02-05T17:55:00.000+11:00

When I started making digital prints I hesitated for some time about whether the prints should be in limited editions. I found that galleries are only interested in limited editions, so from a practical standpoint that answered the question, full stop.

From one point of view the idea of a limited edition digital print is silly. With a traditional technique such as engraving on copper, the plate is relatively soft and prints gradually decrease in quality as the plate becomes worn. Thus in the traditional practice different prints from the same plate vary in quality, and there is a natural limit to the number of prints produced. If prints beyond this number are wanted, it is necessary for someone (likely not the original artist) to rework the plate, going over it with an engraving tool to sharpen up the lines. This may be seen as lessening the contribution of the original artist, so prints from the reworked plate probably don't have the same authority or value as those from its original state.

With digital prints there is no plate to wear out, the source being a computer file in a format like TIFF. Prints from the same file can still vary, according to the choice of paper and inks, the quality of the printing equipment and the ability of the person doing the printing to get the best out of the machinery. But this has nothing to do with edition numbers.

So, why limit edition numbers? The artist Marius Watz, well-known for working with computer code, has said in part:

"The simple answer is because there is no market for unlimited copies … the argument that limited copies imbue the object with perceived value might be uncomfortable to accept, but it's hard to refute. To sell to collectors … it is necessary to build a personal connection between the collector, artist and artwork. Scarcity is simply a shortcut to achieving this goal, however illusory."

(From https://www.quora.com/Why-should-an-artist-make-limited-edition-prints-of-a-painting-as-opposed-to-selling-an-unlimited-amount-of-prints)

So, that gives two reasons for making limited editions: they use scarcity to impart perceived value, and they give the chance of a personal connection, especially with smaller edition numbers. I accept these reasons, but there is something else as well. For me, having a limited edition gives a sense of boundary or closure to a project, and I want that. I'm not sure what I'm feeling here. It has something to do with the physical presence of the print once it has been made, an artefact that can be quite imposing and requires respectful handling. No doubt this is linked to the "aura" of the unique work of art, but that is a topic for another time.

C, Programming Language of the Year

2018-01-22T22:42:00.000+11:00

Five or so years ago I was renovating my programming practice, and I looked at the popularity of programming languages at that time (http://gommog-blog.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/popularity-of-programming-languages.html).

Now I am doing a minor overhaul of my programming practice. I don't intend to change my main programming language (which remains C++), but I thought I would see what changes there have been over five years.

I am not interested in determining "the best" programming language. Obviously there is no single "best" language: what is "best" depends on the job to be done, the skills of the programmer(s), and things like the availability of suitable program libraries; C++ fits my situation. But a popular language will have an active user community and a lot of online resources, so popularity does have benefits.

Last time I looked at two indices of popularity, the TIOBE index (http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index//) and another called the Transparent Language Popularity Index. That is now defunct, so this time I looked at the IEEE's index (http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/interactive-the-top-programming-languages-2017). IEEE stands for "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers", but the Institute has broadened its scope beyond engineering to computer science and other areas.

Last time I looked at 11 languages. This time the TIOBE index and the IEEE index have the same top five languages: Java, C, Python, C++ and C#, though the ordering differs between the two indices. All of these except Python were designed as general-purpose programming languages, and were certainly very popular five years ago. Python started off as a scripting language, but soon joined the general-purpose club and increased in popularity.

The surprise is the continuing longevity of the C language. The TIOBE index awarded it "language of the year" for 2017, as it increased its usage the most during the year (according to TIOBE's calculation). Of all the the languages mentioned in the this post, C is the oldest by some way (dating from 1973) and it is the only one in the top five that is not object-oriented. TIOBE speculates that C's ongoing popularity is due to being taken up by the manufacturing industry. It is suited to so-called embedded systems, computers that are built into other products; since all computers that were around in 1973 were small by today's standards, it isn't surprising that C is suitable for the new wave of small computers.

If I take a sort of average of the two indices, the next six languages after the five above are JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, R, Swift and Visual Basic, making up 11 languages altogether. The first three are associated with Web development, and R is designed for data handling and statistics. Swift is Apple's new general-purpose language, intended to replace Objective-C, and Visual Basic is a general-purpose Microsoft language with quite a long history in different versions.

Compared to five years ago, the newcomers are Swift and R. Swift has displaced Apple's previously favoured language of Objective-C, and R has more or less come from nowhere, presumably due at least in part to the rise of Big Data. The scripting language Perl has dropped out of my top 11, but would be number 12 by my rough ordering.

So the most popular languages are quite stable over five years, and I am pleased to see that C++ is still very much alive and kicking.

Incoherently Massive

2018-01-07T20:10:00.000+11:00

Earlier this week I visited the National Gallery of Victoria's NGV Triennial exhibition. This is free to enter and is a very large show, claiming over 100 artists from 32 countries. I only saw a fraction of the works, so I will be back. But here are some first impressions.

Firstly, there were a lot of people here. Secondly, the works that I saw are very diverse. The NGV has made a point of including design, fashion and craft alongside art, and information about the show states that there was initially no set theme, but that five themes or "prevalent ideas" emerged: Movement, Time, Change, Body and Virtual. It is hard to think of anything not covered by at least one of these.

And thirdly, the show is certainly tuned into modern media. Apart from actual multimedia artworks there are screens around the place showing words and images related to the five themes, and on the third level there is a bar with tablets for people to use, linked to all sorts of vaguely connected discussions, and more screens around the walls. And visitors are encouraged to get on social media and say what they think.

There were, as expected, a number of works dealing with refugees and with climate change. Some of these turned out to be political in a way that the NGV perhaps didn't expect, turning into protests against the employment by the NGV of Wilson Security, who have been involved in brutal treatment of detainees on Manus island. Two artists, Candice Breitz and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, retitled their works to include the words "Wilson must go", and a third, Richard Mosse, edited his work to include statements from Behrouz Bouchani, a refugee detained on Manus Island who had been mistreated by Wilson Security. The changes came too late to be included in the catalogue, but they are included in the NGV's online material.

On this visit I saw two of the works just mentioned. Richard Mosse's Incoming is a large installation showing videos and still images of refugee camps and the like, obtained by using a military-grade infrared telephoto camera. The images are crisp, black and white, and with an eerie quality that reminds us that this camera does not see the same way that we do. Candice Breitz's Wilson Must Go consisted of six in-depth interviews with people driven out of their countries, and also a news-bite version consisting of brief extracts from the interviews read by two Hollywood actors, Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore. There was a point here about the way that celebrities acting a part are more real to us than the actual people who have lived through the events.

A detail from Richard Mosse's Incoming

A number of the works in the Triennial were placed in among the NGV's permanent collection. This applied in particular to Ron Mueck's Mass, a massive collection of oversize skulls, in with 18th-century European paintings. The wall text referred to the tradition of vanitas painting, but the surrounding paintings didn't reflect this. For more, and more varied, skulls, come to Ballarat and see the exhibition Romancing the Skull, on until 28th January (http://artgalleryofballarat.com.au/gallery_exhibitions/romancing-the-skull/).

Ron Mueck's Mass in among the 17th-18th century European painting

Another work from the Triennial placed in among the permanent collection is Ore Streams, from the Dutch Formafantasia design studio. This complex installation is about mining of metals; the group consider that by about 2080 most of the available ores will have been mined, so the source of metals will have to be recycling: "the era of above-ground mining is upon us". Ore Streams was placed among the 19th-century paintings, and there was no discernible connection. But the placing did lead to some of the 19th-century works getting more attention than usual, even if of the selfie-taking kind.

Ore Streams, installation view (one side)

In front of John Rogers Herbert, Moses Bringing down the Tables of the Law (1870s)

Some other works I saw, across art, design and fashion: Sean O'Connell made images made by placing jewellery (rings made out of different materials) in the path of electric discharges that then struck photographic plates. The design studio Joris Laarman Lab had a large table in the form of a bridge, made by advanced manufacturing techniques. Timo Nasseri had a modern take on muqarnas, a technique used in Islamic architecture of covering the inside of a dome or vault with repeating three-dimensional shapes. Nasseri made a small version covered in mirrors and placed in a wall; it showed kaleidoscopic fragmentary reflections of the people passing by. Iris van Herpen had a remarkable dress cut somehow out of leather.

One of Sean O'Connell's Spark Ring works.

Joris Laarman Lab, Bridge Table (prototype)

Timo Nasseri, Epistrophy

Leather dress by Iris van Herpen

What I took away from this first visit was a feeling of incoherence. There are a lot of interesting things here (and I know I haven't seen some of the most interesting ones yet), but there didn't seem to be any reason for selecting these particular works and bringing them together. There wasn't even a post-modern line like "the theme is that there is no theme". What I saw reads as though the curators took a bunch of interesting works and threw them at the wall to see what would stick, always with one and a half eyes on mass audience appeal. The catalogue gives the same impression of incoherence, being a heterogeneous collection of essays, statements, interviews and images; the amount of space given to individual artists represented in the Triennial varies wildly.

After I had visited the Triennial I came across two contrasting reviews, an enthusiastic one by the Guardian at http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/18/ngv-triennial-astounding-blockbuster-grips-the-heart-and-repels-the-nostrils, and a remarkably jaundiced one by Giles Fielke at http://memoreview.net/blog/triennial-at-ngv-international-by-giles-fielke. I haven't made up my mind about the exhibition yet, and I need to see more of it. I will definitely be back.

What's in a name? (Again)

2018-01-03T10:42:00.001+11:00

Some years ago I had to choose a name for my art practice. Now I am returning to this, as I am starting a Facebook artist's page (facebook.com/GordonMonroArtist) and an Instagram page (instagram.com/gordonmonroartist). It is apparently necessary to have a label that is at most three words long, in accordance with the idea of an "elevator statement" (U.S. usage, but "lift statement" sounds odd): you find yourself in a lift with an influential person: you want to tell them what you do, but you only have the time it takes the lift to travel a couple of floors.

My practice is to write computer programs that generate all or most of an artwork. There is an established name for the practice where artists set up systems (computerised or not) that generate artworks, and that is generative art. I would like to call myself a generative artist; unfortunately the term isn't well known, so it needs explanation; no good for elevator statements.

"Process artist" also needs explanation, and an artist's "process" generally refers to the personal process an artist goes through when making or developing work, such as reflecting on events or personal experience, gathering material, and so on. This is quite different from setting up a system that then makes the art.

"Computer artist" brings to mind someone who uses tools like Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator to make art, which is not what I do.

I thought about "programmer/artist", since I write programs as part of my practice. But I am not a professional programmer, and "programmer/artist" (or "artist/programmer") emphasises the programming side too much. For me programming is a means to artistic ends. Also I don't want to use "software artist", as "software art" has had the meaning of art, made in software certainly, that is about software (and about the way governments and big corporations use it); my art is not about software as such, nor about its political implications, except in a very indirect fashion.

I have a similar problem with "mathematician/artist". It is quite a while since I have been active as a mathematician. I certainly use ideas from mathematics as one of the major inspirations for my work, and I use a certain amount of relatively low-level mathematics while writing my programs, but "mathematician/artist" over-emphasises the mathematical side (even if it might be good branding).

So the best three-words-or-fewer approximation I can think of is still "digital media artist". If I am allowed five words I could say "generative artist (digital media artist)", but it would have to be a long lift journey.

Work in Gallery on Sturt, Ballarat

2017-12-05T18:37:00.000+11:00

I have some work in Gallery on Sturt/Accent Framing, 421 Sturt St, Ballarat (next to L'Espresso Café).

Gallery on Sturt's website: http://galleryonsturt.com.au/

Hepburn Springs: Taster exhibition for the Biennale of Australian Art

2017-11-02T21:33:00.002+11:00

The taster exhibition for the Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA) is moving to Hepburn Springs. This is a pop-up exhibition of small works intended to give an advance taste of the Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA), scheduled for 2018 in Ballarat. Artists participating in the Biennale (including me) contributed small works representing their practice.
Where: Hepburn Pavilion, Mineral Springs Reserve, Hepburn Springs (just north of Daylesford).
Dates: 4 to 7 November 2017.
Hours: 10am - 4pm each day.
BOAA's website: http://www.boaa.net.au/

Melbourne: Taster exhibition for the Biennale of Australian Art

2017-10-09T17:34:00.001+11:00

There is an exhibition in Melbourne of small works intended to give an advance taste of the Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA), scheduled for 2018 in Ballarat. Artists participating in the Biennale (including me) contributed small works representing their practice.

Where: Pop-up shop, corner of Rose Lane and Little Bourke Street, Melbourne. This is very near Spencer St, on the North side of Little Bourke Street.

BOAA's website: http://www.boaa.net.au/

Dates: 6 to 29 October 2017.

Hours: Wed to Sun, 12 - 5pm.

Launch of Biennale of Australian Art, Ballarat

2017-09-15T14:54:00.001+10:00

The new Biennale of Australian Art (BOAA), scheduled for 2018 in Ballarat, will be launched on Thursday 28th September 2017, with a display of small artworks by artists participating in the Biennale. (I am one of the Biennale artists, and will have a small work at the Trades Hall.)

Where: Trades Hall Ballarat, 24 Camp St, Ballarat. This is near the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

BOAA's website: http://www.boaa.net.au/

Date and time: Thursday 28 September 2017, 6.00pm.

Work in the Fremantle Print Award

2017-08-27T10:13:00.001+10:00

I have a new abstract work in the Fremantle Print Award, held at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Where: Fremantle Arts Centre, 1 Finnerty Street, Fremantle, Western Australia .

Web: https://www.fac.org.au/whats-on/post/fac-print-award-supported-little-creatures-brewing-2/

Opening: Thursday 21 September 2017, 6.30pm.

Dates of the show: Friday 22 September 2017 to Saturday 11 November, 10am - 5pm. Free entry.

Work in the Flanagan Art Prize, Ballarat

2017-08-12T18:13:00.000+10:00

I have a new abstract work in the Flanagan Art Prize, St Patrick's College, Ballarat.

Where: Old Collegians' Pavilion, at the rear of St Patrick's College, 1431 Sturt Street Ballarat, VIC 3350.

Web: http://www.stpats.vic.edu.au/en/students-parents-staff/music-and-performing-arts/flanagan-art-exhibition/

Opening: Friday 25 August 2017, 7pm. Entry by ticket, available via the web page above.

Dates of the show: 26, 27 August and 2, 3 September, 11am - 4pm. Free entry.

Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

2017-07-27T14:36:00.000+10:00

I have an exhibition opening shortly at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. It consists largely of real-time projections of my work Nanocosm; the work will evolve over the course of the exhibition.

Where: Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard St (North), Ballarat. The Gallery is very close to Ballarat Railway station.

Opening: Saturday 5th August, 4pm. RSVP to the Art Gallery of Ballarat, artgal@vic.gov.au or 5320 5858.

Artist talk: Also Saturday 5th August, 2pm (before the opening). No RSVP needed.

Dates of the show: Saturday 29th July to Sunday 10th September. The Gallery is open seven days a week, 10am to 5pm. Gallery website.

Sign of the (digital) times

2017-07-11T15:13:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I went to buy a new Ballarat street directory, as ours is well out of date. I was told they aren't being made any more: not enough people were buying them, thanks to Google and GPS-enabled devices. I still like to plan a trip to the other side of Ballarat the old-fashioned way, with an actual map. I certainly get a better overview of where I'm going than my phone can provide.

Two items on my art at www.generativeart.com

2017-07-08T14:13:00.000+10:00

Two items by me have become available on websites run under the auspices of Celestino Soddu from the Generative Design lab of Politecnico di Milano University, Milan. These arose from my participation in the 2016 Generative Art conference, held in Florence in December 2016.

On my work Nanocosm: A short abstract followed by a fairly informal paper on the mathematics underlying cite>Nanocosm. To reach this, go to generativeart.com, and in the column at left click on "19 GA2016 papers". Then scroll down until you come to "Artworks"; my paper is the second entry.
A short video presentation (12 minutes) about evolutionary generative art, under the title "Evolutionary art: DNA and selection", at www.gasathj.com/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=63.

Improvising to Nanocosm, June 28th

2017-06-20T21:33:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday June 28th my real-time projection Nanocosm will be part of the SeenSound audio-visual evening at Loop Bar. Brigid Burke and other musicians will bravely attempt to improvise to the visuals from Nanocosm as they are generated. This will be one of a mix of improvised and fixed-media works on the night.

When: 8 pm, Wednesday June 28th.

Where: Loop Bar back room, 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne (off Bourke St between Exhibition and Spring streets).

Cost: $10/$5.

More information: https://seensound.com/.

Talk at Melbourne Media Lab, June 27th

2017-06-20T21:30:00.000+10:00

On Tuesday June 27th I will be giving a talk about my art at Melbourne Media Lab's OpenLAB session for June. The other speaker will be another artist, Melanie Huang.

When: 6 - 8 pm, Tuesday June 27th

Where: ACMI-X, 2 Kavanagh Street #Level 4, Southbank, Melbourne. There is an elevated walkway from behind the Arts Centre: from St Kilda Rd, walk between the Arts Centre and the NGV building.

This is a free event, but it is ticketed on EventBrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/openlab-june-2017-tickets-34931422826.

More information: The EventBrite page above, and Melbourne Media Lab have set up a Facebook event.

Some pictures from my exhibition at Stephen Mclaughlan Gallery

2017-06-06T15:01:00.002+10:00

Some images of the show are on the gallery's Facebook page (you don't have to be on Facebook to see them) - just click on "Not now" when the irritating notice about logging in to Facebook pops up, or scroll past it, and click on an image of the show.